Inspire: A Performing Arts Festival by & for the Airborne Aware, April 15 - 19

Hello, fellow creative and Covid Conscious folks! We are thrilled to announce Inspire: A Performing Arts Festival by and for the Airborne Aware. Inspire is a free, fully virtual line up of events that will take place April 15th through April 19th over Zoom!

Wow, that sounds cool! I’ve got some questions, though.

Fire away.

So, what exactly is this festival all about?

Inspire kicks off on April 15th for World Art Day and will feature comedy, music, theatre, and more. While every piece may not directly pertain to the ongoing pandemic (although some certainly will), everything that you see and hear during the festival will have been made by Covid Conscious creators.

I love that! What will attending virtually look like?

All you need to attend is a free Zoom account. Events will be scheduled at multiple times throughout the day to allow folks in various time zones to participate. With the exception of the open mic event, cameras and microphones will be turned off for everyone throughout performances. You're welcome to use the chat window to text chat with other members of the audience.

And it's free?

Yep. There is no cost for participating in the festival. Tips are welcomed but not expected. We'll provide links at each event for anyone who would like to support the creative teams behind the performances.

Awesome! So…who are you guys?

We're a small group of Covid Conscious folks who love the arts! We miss having safe spaces to perform in-person for audiences and are yearning for art which reflects the reality we're living in, so we've planned this online festival for Airborne-Aware/Covid Conscious artists and audience members alike! Our goal is to not only provide entertainment, but to build community among Covid Conscious creatives.

Build community?

Yes! Depending on where you live or what online platforms you frequent, fellow Covid Conscious people can be difficult to find. We’re hoping to make Inspire an event where people can not only experience art made by and for Airborne Aware folks, but also a place where you can meet like-minded people with similar interests. Zoom’s chat feature will be available during performances so you can engage and connect with others who love the arts!

How do I sign up to attend the festival?

Use this form to select the events you'd like to attend. Zoom links will be sent the day of each event. If you RSVP for an event and your plans change, please use the same form to send a message in the comments section and let us know. Capacity is limited so if we run out of space in any of the festival events, we'll start a wait list.

That should hopefully cover just about everything! Got any more questions?

Just one: do you think Heated Rivalry lived up to all the hype?

Honestly? Yes.

But should you have additional questions about the Inspire Festival, you can use this form to send an email or reach out to a member of our festival planning team: @Guiness_Pig on Twitter/@guinesspig.bsky.social on Bluesky; @laurenflans@bsky.social on Bluesky; @begillz.bsky.social on Bluesky; @noxygen on Twitter/@noxygen.bsky.social on Bluesky; @HeartOfThe_Arts on Twitter/@heartofthearts.bsky.social on Bluesky; @nerdcake78 on Twitter/@nerdcake.bsky.social on Bluesky; @SadGirlSerina on Twitter; @Csvich/@csvich.bsky.social on Bluesky; @jaykaymay_ski on Instagram

Event Lineup:

The Inspire Festival Music Showcase features performances of original music from a diverse lineup of Covid Conscious musicians, as well as a short documentary about the Long Covid Choir and Kids' Choir.

Join us for this exclusive online debut of A Pan***ic Play by Serina Estrada!

A Pan***ic Play is a 50-minute verbatim play sharing the lived experiences of Covid Conscious, Airborne Aware, disabled folks, and folks with chronic illnesses from around the globe. This collection of seven monologues is a cathartic release of grief and rage.  Content Warnings: Very brief mentions of religious trauma, familial abuse, domestic (partner) abuse, nihilism, and medical neglect. Mentions of ableism, grief, pandemics, betrayal, rage, and isolation.

We invite you to join playwright and actor Serina Estrada for a reflective discussion immediately following the play.

This reimagining of the three little pigs story asks the question: what if the three little pigs' community responded to the big bad wolf the same way we’ve responded to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic? What if, after all they'd learned about the big bad wolf, they had chosen to go backwards in their measures to prevent harm... instead of moving forward?

Calling all Airborne Aware artists - it's your turn to take the stage! RSVP for a 5-minute spot to share a live performance of your original work.

Wake Up and Smell the COVID is a COVID Conscious monologue performance by the anonymous arts collective Holy Erotic Propaganda Arson (HEPA). The play is a communal grief ritual for the devastating impacts COVID and Long COVID are having on the arts. It premiered as a hybrid performance in New York City and on Zoom on April 24, 2025 and was a fundraiser for artists living with Long COVID. The piece unfolds as a sequence of monologues about the journey from silence to awakening about the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

Love cats and hate capitalism (if you don’t already)! Ron Placone has been a political comic (their designation, not his) since 2007, and he’s been witnessing the decline pretty much since the Iraq War jolted him awake. Ron will take you on a journey through politics, culture, travel, relationships, and for comic relief, some notes on how he copes with it all. A comedy show for the lefties, the weirdos, the freethinkers, the peaceniks, the dreamers, or anyone who wants to join us, FFS, we need more of us!

THE LEFT is a choral play about some of those left, on the left, when all systems and people have failed one another. An intimate spoken-word opera for battered times. We invite you to join playwright Caridad Svich for a reflective discussion immediately following the play.

Having lost his mother to Covid, Ben Santos longs for a safe place to exist in a world that has gone back to normal. His life is changed with the news of an unexpected inheritence from his wealthy, estranged father. With the help of his friend and colleague Josina, Ben buys a bankrupt amusement park and converts it into a public health sanctuary community, giving it a tongue-in-cheek name: Wayside.

It's two years into the future when Ben is interviewed on a nationally televised talk show. The segment goes viral, quickly putting Wayside, North Carolina, on the map as ‘a gated community where people still mask.’ Suddenly, the residents of Wayside are distracted by a series of strange events, visitors with questionable motives, and chaos erupting in the lives of their loved ones outside of the gates. As Wayside’s leaders shepherd the community through both change and crisis, they struggle to remain a united front. And when feelings deepen beyond friendship for Ben and Josina, each must confront defining traumas from their pasts to better understand what brought them to Wayside, and to each other. Love and loyalties will be tested when disaster strikes, threatening the future of the entire community. Will Wayside find its way forward?

Ready to RSVP?

Select the events you'd like to attend using this form. Zoom links will be sent the day of each event.